SHED
In July we were given the keys to our new four-bay-shed. This has taken a long time to get finished but will be well worth it once we move in. It includes a two-bay garaport which will be our undercover work area with plenty of ventilation. We will be moving our operations down to this new shed below the nursery to allow the nursery room to expand the retail space. The shed is now very close to completion now and just needs the lighting and final groundwork completed. We look forward to a safer and more organised layout with all our equipment in the one location.
The time finally arrived to retire the old Yellow Landcruiser which Gympie Landcare has had for over 15 years. The “Yellow Beast” finally started to wear out a piston and it was no longer possible to mend and make do. This was replaced with a more capable V8 Toyota Landcruiser. We now have three operational Qwikspray units for weed work and tree planting, plus a single cab runabout ute we share with BioControl and Nursery. The crisp all white fleet is exceptionally well suited to the job and now all the vehicles are safe, reliable and comfortable to drive.
SEED COLLECTION PERMIT
We have recently been approved for our seed collection permit in the Cooloola Shire by the Department of Environment and Science. This will allow us to access seed from threatened species to utilise in our nursery and CLS projects. We are hoping our members can utilise the landholder permission forms to collect not only seed for the nursery but also collect written access permission to collect seed from a larger number of locations on an ongoing basis. Landcare will already be approaching Gympie Regional Council, HQ Plantations, National Parks, and Main Roads for permission however we would also like to see seed coming in from freehold properties.
We rely heavily on just a small few seed collectors who’s efforts are prolific and I would challenge Gympie and district Landcare’s members to collect more seed as this is the only way our revegetation work can continue to grow. Seed is crucial to our activities and we need it in larger quantities, many of the species we use in revegetation are not garden plants and are not show stoppers so please continue to bring in boring things like Eucalyptus, and Acacia, dry rainforest and riparian trees as this will not only support the Nursery but CLS.
REVEGETATION
Currently we are well underway revegetating Deep Creek below Pengelly’s Bridge. This year we also planted 4500 at the River Trail, 4000 at the sands, 10000 with MRCCC projects and 4500 at Victory Trails. A lot of riverbank, gullies and Koala habitat has been restored tens of hectares. We will be continuing this work into Summer 19-20 with at leas 5 new project being planned. July is our seasonal quiet time as it is too cold for many activities, but by September once our grants are approved, we will be back at it full speed.
FACES
We have welcomed a few new staff in the last six months and by August Gympie Landcare’s field crew will number 8. This has been a fantastic growth in such a short time and is due in a large part to the continued support of MRCCC and GRC.